The Joy of First Name Emails

Ever since I started working, my companies have always been startups. First it was Hopstack, where I was employee number 11. And then, it was Devfolio, coming it at number 19.

In both these places, my email has been my first name (for example, cyril@hopstack.io). And I love having these first name emails. Initially my love was very shallow — I thought that having to spell my full name was a hassle, especially in a country like India, where Anglic names like mine are usually butchered while pronouncing it. And a first-name email address just softened that hassle into dictating my five-letter first name.

There was a bit of downtime I had between my job at Hopstack and Devfolio, and that's when I really thought about it deeply. Why did I love my first-name email so much?

Turns out, there’s a special kind of joy in having an email address that’s simply your first name. It’s more than just an identifier — it’s a badge of honor, a subtle but powerful symbol that you were there at the beginning. It means that you were there when there was absolutely nothing, and you were a part of the journey that created something out of that void.

Having a first-name email shows that you were part of the company's formative days, when everything was raw, and full of potential. Your company probably moved offices a couple of times because the old one grew too small to accommodate your rising number of teammates. If you were in tech like I was, you probably saw the production environment go down more than a few times. You probably had to deal with vendors, suppliers, software providers not taking you seriously because your company didn't show up high enough on search results. You probably thought you were fighting the most uphill battle of your life when you were dealing with these things. I was too.

But in retrospect, those were some of the most formative years of my life. I probably learnt more about running a business than I would have in a big company. I got to wear so many hats at Hopstack alongside being a PM, that it gave me a holistic view of the good, the bad, and the ugly underbelly of the daily grind in keeping the lights on.

In the end, a first name email is not just about the novelty — it's about what it represents. It will probably end up giving you your greatest arc of character development, second only to starting your own business. It's a reminder of the early days, the late nights, the countless moments of chaos and doubt that come with building something from scratch. However, it is also a quiet acknowledgement that you were there when it all began.

So if you ever have a chance to be a part of something at its inception, take it. Not just for the email address, but for the invaluable lessons, the memories, and the pride of saying, I helped build this. After all, these are the stories that will shape not just your life, just like it did mine.